This photo provided by Yemen's Defense Ministry shows a damaged vehicle after an explosion at the Defense Ministry complex in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013.

Yemen Defense Ministry/AP

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Smoke rises after an explosion at the Defense Ministry complex in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013. Military and hospital officials in Yemen said a large explosion at the Defense Ministry complex in the center of the capital, Sanaa, has wounded tens of people, many of them seriously.

Mohammed Hamoud/AP

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Unidentified militants launched a brazen attack in the heart of Yemen's capital Thursday morning, targeting the country's defense ministry in a car bombing and ground assault that left dozens dead.

According to various reports, the assailants attacked the gate of the ministry first with gunfire and a suicide car-bombing, before breaking into the ministry compound and occupying a hospital within. A brief statement from the ministry said at least 20 people were killed, though many reports suggest the death toll was higher.

The militants were armed with assault rifles, hand grenades, and rocket-propelled grenades. And while no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, AP writes that it "bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida, whose chapter in Yemen is considered among the world's most active."

Al-Qaida militants are concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of Yemen, but they occasionally strike in the capital. They took advantage of the tenuous security prevailing in 2011 and 2012 during an uprising against then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh by seizing territory in the south. The government has since recaptured al-Qaida-held areas....

The United States has been helping Yemen combat the threat of al-Qaida, training Yemeni special forces, supplying them with arms and exchanging intelligence with the Sanaa government.

Reuters notes that Al Qaeda militants have been stepping up targeted attacks against senior Yemeni military personnel. On Sunday gunmen on foot killed an army colonel and his son while their car waited at a traffic light in the town of al-Qatan. Yemeni officials say that since last year, more than 80 soldiers have been killed in such attacks, often involving gunmen on motorcycles.